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Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos is adding about 1,000 troops to the force that deploys to American diplomatic missions overseas, but unless he’s given some leeway on the Marine Corps’ overall end strength, he has to pull them away from other important jobs.

“The commandant, rightly so, says this should be above our current top line, because we’re being mandated to expand the mission of the Marine Corps while we have other vital missions that we have to do,” said Marine Lt. Col. Ron McLaughlin, a top Corps homeland defense officer. “So right now, we’re assuming a little bit of risk in our operating force to pay for this.”

If sequestration stays in effect, Amos has warned, the Corps could drop to about 174,000 active-duty troops, from its wartime peak of 202,100. That means increasing the number of Marines devoted to embassy security has an outsize effect.

Meanwhile, some of the new diplomatic security troops are already in place — in fact, the Marines said their beefed-up mission was on display last week when Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Panama. For the first time ever, a new quick reaction force, called a Marine Security Augmentation Unit, deployed to support a VIP visit, according to Marine spokesman Lt. Col. David Nevers.

New Marine Security Augmentation Units have already conducted 11 operational deployments since they were created in August.

In some countries, the Security Augmentation Units will be sent in to provide an interim security force until a standing Marine Security Guard detachment can be established.

But that’s not their only role. The new units can also help deter attacks at State Department facilities by conducting what are called “random anti-terrorism measures” and provide extra security when VIPs travel, as was the case with the Biden trip.

The Marines assigned to these units have already been on two or three tours with a regular Marine Security Guard detachment. After that, they get advanced tactics training that put them more in line with a Marine infantry unit.

The teams of about 10 to 12 Marines have deployed to eight U.S. embassies in Africa and the Middle East prior to this year’s anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A team also deployed to Nairobi, Kenya, following the deadly Westgate Mall attack to harden the U.S. Embassy there, Nevers said.

The Marines declined to say whether the Kenya team is still in place.

The new special units are just one part of the Marines’ effort to step up its security guard mission following the deadly terrorist attack last year on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. Since then, Congress passed legislation that directed the Marine Corps to increase the number of embassy security guards by 1,000, almost doubling the personnel devoted to the mission.

Before the plus-up, the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group, based at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., had about 1,200 Marines assigned to more than 130 countries. Now, the Corps is quickly adding new detachments, which will be assigned to embassies and consulates around the world based on requests from the State Department.

The Marines have stood up five new MSG detachments and are on track to open four more in December, McLaughlin said. An average detachment has about six to 12 Marines.

President Barack Obama has ordered the Marines to stand up new detachments faster than Congress required in last year’s defense policy bill. Its goal now is to stand up 35 new detachments by the end of 2014, McLaughlin said.

The president “sees Marines as the gold standard when it comes to securing embassies and consulates, so he wants to make sure that all his posts overseas that can have them, will have them,” McLaughlin said.

Commanders haven’t established a Marine Security Guard detachment in Libya. Instead, an even more robust and larger Marine presence is in place, given the volatile security situation on the ground, McLaughlin said.

“Within in the next year, there will be an MSG detachment there [in Tripoli],” he added.

To build the new MSG detachments, the Corps is also growing its school in Quantico. The classes there are increasing from 100 to 150 Marines to 200 to 240 Marines. Former Marine Security Guards have also been hired as contractors to help with training until more instructors can be hired.

But as forces are being pulled out of Afghanistan, the Marine Security Guard mission is becoming an even more attractive assignment.

“It becomes one of the few ways that Marines can actually go out there and see the world and maybe see some action,” McLaughlin said.